WASHINGTON — The unusually blunt war of words between the White House and the former NASA administrator continued Monday as the Obama administration defended itself against caustic criticism from former space agency chief Michael Griffin.

The White House reaffirmed President Barack Obama’s backing for costly manned space operations in the face of Griffin’s accusation Friday that budget-cutting bureaucrats were secretly creating a “fictional space program” by draining the agency budget.

The quick response to Griffin’s sharp criticism underscores the political sensitivity of NASA-related issues as Obama struggles to choose a new agency administrator and develop a realistic spending blueprint to return astronauts to the moon by 2020. Manned spaceflight is an important issue to voters in Florida, which Obama narrowly carried in 2008, as well as Texas, where he lost.

The White House will present Congress with a detailed plan for NASA’s proposed $18.7 billion budget early next month.

Baer was responding to remarks that Griffin delivered to the annual National Space Club dinner where the former agency chief warned that OMB bureaucrats were usurping the powers of elected officials by challenging NASA cost estimates and cutting space agency spending.

Obama’s campaign promises to support NASA are “not being matched by our deeds,” Griffin warned.

Unnamed OMB staffers “out of view of the nation’s elected leadership” are cutting funding for manned exploration spacecraft by $3.5 billion over the next four years, Griffin said.

“The judgment as to whether the stated goals are too costly, or not, is one to be made by the nation’s elected leadership, not career civil service staff,” he declared.

Griffin’s criticism, delivered after receiving an award from the group, was enthusiastically received by the audience of 2,500 past and present government officials and contractors.

NASA headquarters had no immediate reaction. Griffin took over the agency in 2005 following the Columbia tragedy and served until Obama’s inauguration.

One Texas congressman, Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Rockwall, the top Republican on the House panel that oversees NASA, said he could “always count” on Griffin “to tell me what he thought and not pull any punches.”